AFL-CIO Executive Council backs Medicare for All

SILVER SPRING, Md.—A strong endorsement of government-run single-payer Medicare for All as the ultimate solution to U.S. health care ills highlighted position statements from the just-concluded summer AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting.

The council’s health care statement, issued from the 3-day meeting in late July at the George Meany Center in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring, Md., first denounced congressional Republicans for trashing the Affordable Care Act.

Other statements from the council:

* Denounced the Trump administration’s rollback of government regulations — including dumping of the rule requiring fuller disclosure from union-busters

* Reiterated pro-worker goals for negotiating a “new NAFTA,” and

* Blasted the denial of voting rights through so-called Voter ID laws and said the stacked “election fraud” commission Trump named is probing a problem that doesn’t exist.

* Defended the rights of undocumented people, including more than 1 million covered under the Obama administration’s program for protecting teenagers and young adults brought to the U.S. as children, and other workers under “Temporary Protected Status.”

That statement again urged lawmakers to enact comprehensive immigration reform, legalizing all the undocumented people in the U.S. , millions of whom have paid taxes for years, and some of whom are union members.

But endorsement of single-payer government-run health care as the ultimate goal of the labor movement marked a new phase in labor’s crusade to reform the U.S. health care system.

At least 20 unions, led by National Nurses United, the United Steelworkers and the Amalgamated Transit Union, have campaigned for single-payer for years. The AFL-CIO endorsed it as a potential objective in prior health care statements.

In past years — and even its Democrats — turned a deaf ear. Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, pushed a single-payer option through one committee during construction of the ACA, but his plan was later dropped.

And in California, a strong NNU push for single-payer in the nation’s largest state, through State Senate passage of SB562 establishing it, has been stymied by the Democratic State Assembly speaker. In addition, Gov. Jerry Brown, D-Calif., questions how the state would pay for it.

But now the federation apparently wants to revive the drive. And it may be gaining public support, as a contributor to USW’s blog notes that a recent opinion poll shows 53 percent of the public support single-payer.

“If Congress and President Trump are truly interested in improving health care for working people, there are many things they could do,” the fed’s statement said, near the end.

Those Affordable Care Act fixes include tackling “hollowed-out coverage with deductibles that are far too high for the typical person,” reining in prescription drug prices and repeal of the “Cadillac Tax” on high-cost health plans, many of which unions have negotiated in contracts.

Lawmakers should also explore patient-centered alternatives to the private insurance system – with Medicare for all topping the list, the statement adds.

“Our core goal is to move expeditiously toward a single-payer system, like Medicare for All, that retains a role for workers’ health plans and in which access to quality, affordable health care is indeed a right for everyone in this country,” it declares.

The “new NAFTA” goals statement reiterates points the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters, the Auto Workers and the Machinists stated at earlier Trump administration hearings on U.S. negotiating goals for a new trade pact with Mexico and Canada.

It also says the fed will launch a new educational campaign to inform the wider public of the goals and of how a “new NAFTA,” properly written and enforced, can help, not hurt, workers.

“Working people and our unions are united and will mobilize with the same level of intensity as our campaign to defeat the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” the now-dead “free trade” pact Obama signed with 11 other Pacific Ocean nations, the fed said.

“We will work to advance a set of positive and forward-looking trade rules through a comprehensive public campaign on the ground, online and over the air,” the fed declared.

“Besides targeting public officials, the campaign will “show there is another way, and that we need to act collectively to achieve a higher standard of living” and “demand greater democracy, transparency and participation in the NAFTA renegotiation process.”

And the federation promises to “mobilize our members, community allies and all workers to demand a better NAFTA, with rules centered on working people’s policy choices — not those of the corporate class.”

CONTRIBUTOR

Mark Gruenberg is head of the Washington, D.C., bureau of the People's World. He is also the editor of Press Associates Inc. (PAI), a union news service in Washington, D.C.
Gruenberg has been editor-in-chief of PAI since 1999. Previously, he worked as Washington correspondent for the Ottaway News Service, as Port Jarvis bureau chief for the Middletown NY Times Herald Record, and as a researcher and writer for the Congressional Quarterly. Mark obtained his BA in public policy from the University of Chicago and worked as the University of Chicago correspondent for the Chicago Daily News.